Relative Minor Key signatures?

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: GUEST,Rag
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 08:11 AM

Interesting stuff these modes.

Another way of thinking about them is to start with a major scale such as D. If you go from the second note up to the second note (E to E) then that's the Dorian mode of D. It sounds like an E minor but isn't quite because it has a C# in it - that doesn't matter much because the E minor chord will work (E, G, B).

If you start and end on the sixth note, you'll get the relative minor scale, B minor.

Starting on different notes of the scale give you different modes and a different feel.

With a Dorian mode tune in D (E - E) you might find chords D, C, G and Em work well. The B minor tune on the other hand might feel better with Bm, Em, A and D. It's good fun to cross them as well because it creates a sort of ambiguity.

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: Grab
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 08:10 AM

Because the key is the key of the tune! Just because the bottom string on my guitar is E, it doesn't mean that I can only play tunes in E...

Having C and D whistles are the equivalent of a capo. IIRC, tunes played on a C whistle are actually in a key one tone below that written. This may be more convenient for playing certain keys (eg. F), or a whistle player may just do it to get a different tone in the same way a guitarist would change tunings.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 07:33 AM

Dave is correct. Make sure your friend's whistle really is a D whistle. I've known players who don't know a crotchet from a hatchet and just assume their whistle is cut in a certain key because that is the key they're playing in and vice versa. 'I'm playing in D because there is a sticker on my whistle which says so'

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: belfast
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 06:27 AM

To expand a little on the second posting back there. The dorian mode is more or less them same as the minor scale except that the sixth note of the scale is not flattened. So a dorian mode tune on a D whistle will have E as its keynote. And as far as any accompnying gutarist is concerned it is in E minor.

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 06:07 AM

It's quite possible to play sharps and flats on a whistle. Most players will use a D whistle to play in the key of D or G - otherwise they'd have to change whistles every time the key changed. Your whistle player was therefore playing in the relative minor of G which is Em.

Subject: RE: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 05:32 AM

Because it's a Dorian tune

Subject: Relative Minor Key signatures?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 05:29 AM

The other day a whistle player suggested he play something on his D whistle. The tune (Drunken Sailor) is a minor. D is two sharps. So is B minor (the relative minor of D). So I thought it would be in B minor on the guitar. It wasn't. It was in E minor. Why?